whiteTRASH
by FlakeGirl
Summary: By the first day of Christmas break, West Brick high stumbles across a secrect that means whiteBoy. isn't alone... Which is impossible... Gabriella has been lying to them - And now she and Troy are going to have to RUN. .x.
1. Part 18: A broken promise

**AN: Should make sense to those who haven't read 'whiteBoy.' Enjoy. :D**

* * *

**whiteTRASH.**

**A Broken Promise.**

* * *

_Feet thumping,  
Lungs pumping,  
Legs aching,  
Heart breaking._

_  
His eyes slowly began to fill with tears as he ran further... As he broke his promise._

* * *

Troy awoke in a pool of darkness. His hair was greasy with sweat from running and his clothes were grimy from the unswept ground he slept on. Slowly, he sat up, causing his aching muscles to protest against the action. He turned his head in search of his partner in crime, Ronnie. Ronnie was leaning against the wall of the abandoned building Troy had to reluctantly tell him about. Secretly he hoped that Ronnie would forget the house's location and then convinced himself it was the likelihood - The guy wasn't exactly the brightest bulb in the electrics store and they would be moving from place to place during the next couple of weeks anyway.

"Does this place have a shower?" Ronnie asked as he chewed his dirty fingernails, wiggling their broken ends before pulling them off with his teeth and spitting them out.

"Not one that works." Troy replied, watching Ronnie disgustedly before turning away. He would need his last meal to remain _inside_ his stomach. There was absolutely no denying that Ronnie was pretty gross and overall unhygenic (It was, in fact, surprising to hear Ronnie query about a shower in the first place.), but he was also loyal and Troy guessed he must at least be an OK guy. There could be worse people helping you run from around fifty crazy kids out for your blood - literally.

Troy sighed. He thought back to when he didn't have to be hiding like this. It was just the other day, in fact. Just the other day, he was sitting blissfully at Gabriella's side, forgetting all of his cares. Once he met Gabriella, it felt like it had been years since anyone had called him 'whiteBoy.'. She had never treated him with any less respect than she would with someone who posessed darker skin. Like the rest of them. Their exclusive relationship had been so much so, that he just never expected anything to break through their walls. But they did. She was right. _It's like I've been living in a dream and I just don't want to wake up._ She had said. And now, because of him, she had come within inches of danger. And it was all his fault... It was all his fault and he broke his promise... he broke his promise and...

Troy snapped himself out of it. "We should probably get going soon." he mumbled, forcing his stiff body to stand, before stretching out his muscles after an uncomfortable sleeping position that night, his only comfort being his bag imitating a pillow.

"Why do we have to go already?" Ronnie whined. "Shouldn't we be safe for a couple more days?"

"I don't think so." Troy replied, peering through one of the broken windows. "They'll be searching the whole town if they have to - they're not stupid, Ron. They've decided they want me now. That's it. With frikkin Drew Baylor leading them there is no way this is going down without a fight... Now lets start working out where we can go next."

* * *

Andrew Baylor stepped into his dimly-lit kitchen/sitting room - if you could even call it that. It was more an average sized room with basic appliences and a couch. This was beginning to make a hell of a lot less sense. There was no way fucking whiteBoy. could have slipped through his net alone... there was complete confirmation that he had been in the Montez girl's apartment building when the guy pulled a fast one. Someone else had to be on his side - and it wasn't a bad bet to assume that she might just be one of those someones. Yep, if he didn't get his hands on whiteBoy. soon, then he was sure going to have to pay a little visit to that little half-cast girl that happened to live nearby.

Drew smirked as he watched a girl squirming uncomfortably in the corner. The tips of her dark-brown hair dyed red. His eyes zeroed in on her, his intense gaze turning the whole room of chattering teenagers silent. He could see her forehead was already clammy before she quickly tried to wipe the moisture away with the side of her hand.

"Where's Myra, Keri?" he asked, referring to the girl of which she was usually was seen with around school. One of the thirds to the group of three that he knew she belonged to.

"She's... she's..." anyone could see that Keri wanted desperately to think of an excuse for her friends absence, but Andrew's stare was too intense. Too frightening.

"She's not coming..." Keri said quietly, her face a picture of guilt for not protecting her friend better.

"What?! Why?" Andrew half asked-half growled.

Looking around the room for a helping hand - and finding none, Keri tried to make her voice sound strong. "She doesn't want to be a part of this. Her and some others."

He came towards her so quickly, so suddenly that she actually felt herself stumbling back into the wall in fear. "She with whiteBoy.?!"

"No!" Keri felt relieved to say. "No... she's not... she would never..."

"Fine. But she better not come crawling over here when she gets tired of this shit and needs a place to go. And if she goes to him, then there's no coming back - we're after her too. Does she get that?"

Keri's breath almost got stuck in her throat. "Um.. yeah, I think so."

Drew sent her a suggestive smile, stepping a little closer. "Well, at least you'll be alright then." he said seductively before whispering so that only Keri could hear his words, "But I don't know how much I can say for your... other friend though, sweet cheeks."

Keri's breath caught before she tried to shake the image out of her head that even Andrew Baylor didn't know about.

* * *

"Come on Ronnie!" Troy called as his partner in crime lagged behind him.

"Maybe we could just find Rex..." Ronnie started.

"No." Troy interrupted him with authority. "we're not gonna drag him into this shit if we can help it okay? He's done enough for me and I don't want him worrying or getting hurt. It doesn't matter if he's our friend, he's still an old man. And it's not fair."

Rex was one of Troy's first acquaintances once he moved - a mentor if you will. If it wasn't for Rex, Troy felt that he might have formed a similar prejudice as the one his peers had formed against him due to the color of his skin. Rex was wise enough to guide him away from that, and as he was black himself, managed to prove to him that color was only skin deep. _'S what's in t' heart that 'cha take account for na Troy.'_ he would say.

Troy's mind then wandered to what the girl with the heart of gold would be doing. The girl that he left. _No._ he thought to himself. _Don't put yourself down that route..._ He had ran to save her hadn't he? To lead her out of harms way.

Maybe he would have felt better if he hadn't promised her that he would never leave.

* * *

Restlessly, she tossed and turned in her sleep. For three hours she had been drifting in and out of consciousness.

_He left. He left when he said he would never leave. He left to protect me?  
Goddamn idiot._

If only he had known what was occurring in her dreams, if only he knew the force that was approaching what was once her haven of a home. Far from protected.

_Ten year old Gabriella looks out of her window, watching the water droplets of rain dribble slowly down the glass. The night has cast itself over the sky and she can't see anything but darkness. As she twists one of her angry black ringlets around one of her fingers, she hears crying in the distance. Her mothers' crying. Hurriedly, she runs over to her bedroom door and peers around the edge of the frame._

_  
The woman is sobbing into her hands quietly as her parents bedroom door slams closed on the room behind her. Suddenly, as if thinking better of herself, Gabriella's mother stops her tears, wiping them away determinedly before noticing her daughter watching her. Pulling on a bright smile she sniffs and beckons her forward to give her a comforting embrace._

_Marie Montez's partner comes out of the room, a box of cigarettes in his left hand, a lighter in his right, a single unlit stick in his mouth. Gabriella moves to protest, knowing that he would be about to light up out of her bedroom window, the only one that opens in the flat. She hated it when he did that. Even though it was out of the window it still made the room smell and sometimes her clothes picked up the stench, making her want to retch all day._

_Her mother holds her tiny body back, telling her silently to re think her actions. But as Gabriella watches the man she called father walk into her room, she realizes for the first time, that she doesn't want to hold back. All he did was yell vulgar, drunken things at her make her Mom cry, and when her Mom cried it made her want to cry, too. All he did was waste all their money on his stupid cigarettes. All he did was ruin their little lives. So why is he here? Gabriella wondered. Insisting that she wanted to finish cleaning the dirty dishes by herself, Marie took it as a small cry for independence and left her daughter to her own devices in the tiny kitchen. She knew that Gabriella could be stubborn when she wanted._

_Gabriella rushes the dishes, leaving them on a rack to dry themselves before slowly entering her bedroom. There he is, smoking away, out of her window. All the breeze was doing was blowing the stench around the room. Turning at the sound of Gabriella's footsteps, his face forms a scowl. "What do you want, bitch?"_

_"Not you." Gabriella retorts, her brown eyes narrowing. _

_"Then get the fuck out of here, then."  
_

_"No. _You_"_

_"What?!" Ben Smith takes a menacing step closer, his cigarette centimetres away from the girls delicate nose. "What do you think your talking, kid?"  
_

_"We don't need you any more." Gabriella says, pushing out all of her long built up anger. "Me and Mom can take care of ourselves - so stop being horrible and change, or leave. We don't want you here anymore!"_

_"You little shit." Ben hisses, stubbing out his cigarette on the cushion of the only chair in her room. "That's what you've always been bitch. You're shit. You're scum. You worthless, filthy cunt!" Gabriella flinches for the first time from his language, but she knows she can no longer crack under his fury._

_"But you think you're not - so prove it."_

_Ben Smith scoffed, then looked left to right, as if someone might be on either side of him to give his so called daughter a valid answer, or at least a good comeback. But there was no one and they both knew it._

_"I don't have to prove anything to you." He looks down at her as if she were something unwanted and disgusting stuck to the bottom of his shoe. "You were never even meant to be in the picture, you worthless piece of scum!" he spat as he spoke, "My bags have been packed for a long time anyway."_

_And he strides away into a raging thunderstorm._

It was the same dream she had every time there was a storm, except - for the first time - the walking figure of her father slowly, _finally_ turned around.  
But to her shock and surprise, the face didn't belong to the man that left her seven years ago... It was the man that left her just yesterday.

Gabriella Montez screamed herself awake.

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**AN: It feels gooooooooooooooooooood to be baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack! ;D**

**Did you guys like it?? I hope so. This is going to be quite different to whiteBoy. as you can see, now that for the first time, Troy and Gabriella are truly seperated from each other and they have to try and get through on their own for a while. Anyway, remeber to _LEAVE REVIEWS!!!!_ and tell me what you thought!**

**Love, love, love,**

**whirlergirl .x.**


	2. Part 19: whiteBoy's back

**AN: I'd just like to mention that I'm really happy with my first response to whiteTRASH. and I love you all.**

****

Just as something on the side - did anyone ever start reading a story a while ago called Beautiful Disaster? It's basically about T&G and well, Troy basically has zero trust in people as he is an orphan etc and although he can talk, he doesn't. Gabriella is his only friend and he's kind of being bullied etc? I swear I reviewed it and stuff but it's like it just disappeared. Sadly I was stupid enough to forget who the author was so I can't even look up them. Does ANYONE know what I'm talking about? If you do, please tell me because I just really like that story and I'm going a bit nuts trying to figure out how it disappeared so suddenly. THANKS! and sorry about the rambling... :D

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**whiteBoy.'s back.**

* * *

Walking through the streets late, in a cold, winter night really wasn't what Troy would describe as ideal - but daytime was simply not an option. It was possible that dagerous kinds of people would be around places like the ones Ronnie and Troy walked through in the darkness, but now that they were practically being hunted, the number of people wanting to kill them would most likely double in the daylight.

They had already passed by by various stoners and a couple more homeless's, however, most of them were passed out asleep and therefore didn't really pose much of a threat.

Ronnie's ears visibly pricked up like an animals might any time he heard some kind of movement, impressing Troy with his knowledge of how to survive without a home so long with barely a dime between them.

"I don't know about you, Ronnie, but I'm gonna really need to take a shower soon. How are we supposed to do that?" Troy complained in a whisper.

Ronnie rolled his eyes. "Don't worry, man - I have my ways. It's just gonna take a couple more turns, and then I've got a plan. Faith alright, please?"

Troy mumbled something incoherent under his breath.

All of a sudden, Ronnie's arm whipped to the side, thumping Troy in the stomach and effectively stopping him in hie tracks.

"Did you hear that?" he asked.

"Hear _what_?" Troy retorted, a little agitated.

But he listened. They listened... There was some kind of shuffling somewhere near.

At first the two young males stood side by side, listening intently to the scuffle of feet. Unlike Troy's first expectations of the sound, it didn't sound like a fight. It sounded strange... almost desperate. Somehow, through all of the scuffling, another sound broke though. And as clear as crystal, a terrified female whimper pierced through the night. And as if on auto-pilot, Troy shot forwards towards the sound with Ronnie quickly at his heels.

In the shadows of the night, all anyone could make out was the silhouette of a man gripping the neck of a small, fighting creature. As they ran silently closer, it was clear to see it was a young woman with some king of gag around her mouth.

With one swift movement, Troy wrapped one of his arms around the attackers neck, pulling him towards himself, backwards, and away from the girl he was previously strangling. Ronnie quickly darted to aid the girl who was fiercely pulling away the gag before gasping for air.

"Bobby?" Ronnie asked the girl quizzically before letting his attention snap back to Troy, now running toward him and pulling the attacker off the guy as he had somehow managed to get a hold on him.

Taking this opportunity gratefully, Troy struck his opponent hard across the face, causing him to stumble back into Ronnie who thumped him in the back of his head. The young woman who was now sitting on the cold ground suddenly coughed fitfully and Ronnie dashed over to check on her, his worry evident.

With Troy's attention also slightly diverted, the attacker chose this as the best time to try and make a quick escape, however as he tried to stumble away, he was only yanked harshly back by the neck by Troy before sending him another jaw breaker. He didn't know why he couldn't stop - but he just couldn't. Troy's eyes were dark and hard and emotionless. His actions were fueled by years of pent-up anger and rage, but most of all, of memories. Seeing the poor girl being attacked immediately forced his mind back to when he had to see something all too similar. He could picture his dark-haired beauty trapped by the arms of the dark-eyed monster all over again and as he did so, something in him just... snapped.

It was times like these when he lost himself that it happened. When he forgot who he was. Abandoned himself to the anger. It was so long since he had last felt the heat pulse through his body that way. The bloodlust. When he stopped being Troy. When whiteBoy. came back.

Furious at his plan being foiled by some punk ass white kid, the man held his ground, sending a clumsy punch in Troy's direction, of which, he swiftly dodged. Now even further angerd by his unanswered swing, he aimed to push his opponent down.

Troy felt himself fall to the ground as the two males now rolled around in their now half-hearted tussle. The dampness of the floor was beginning to seep through their clothes and into their skin, slowly making the urge to fight, ebb away.

_Where the fuck is Ronnie?_ Troy found himself thinking. The two weren't exactly what you would call good friends, but he did sort of expect the guy to have his back at times like the present. _Never expect anything of anyone..._ Now bored of this repetitive fight, he fumbled for his pocket, trying to defend himself with one hand as he attempted to brandish his pocket knife. Suddenly, almost as if he could _feel_ the switchblade millimeters away from his fingertips, something made a very loud -

**_THWACK!_**

It was his skull being thrust against the alley wall.

...And the world went black...

* * *

"Do you think he's actually okay?"

"Of course he is. He's no wimp, Bobby."

Troy painfully heard Ronnie's voice as if he were yelling it into his ear. "See look... I think he's waking up."

_Damn it. I can't even fake a bit of sleep._ Troy squinted against the harsh light that suddenly filled his vision.

"Ha! Told ya!" he heard Ronnie say triumphantly.

It was then that he noticed something desperately important. The ground wasn't hard. His head rested on an actual pillow. - Perhaps not the most comfortable of pillows, but it was the most comfort he had had in days - And that was exactly his problem.

Troy groaned as his body protested against his actions of pulling himself upright and somehow managing to swing his legs over the side of the hard, unknown bed.

"You kay, man?" he heard Ronnie ask as he put his hands over his eyes, still trying to adjust to the light and the dull pain that filled his muscles - seemingly trying to disguise the much heavier one throbbing away at the back of his head. It wasn't working.

"Where the hell am I?" he asked, ignoring Ronnie's previous question.

"We're in a motel room. Bobby knows the owner - he's got a real soft side when it comes to Bobby - and well, he gets her a free room to sleep in sometimes. She was on her way here when-"

"Who the fuck is Bobby?" Troy interrupted irritably. Looking up for the first time, Troy watched as a skinny brunette cocked her hip to one side obnoxiously, while pursing her lips as if slowly judging him.

"I am." she snapped.

Something really pissed Troy off with the way that she was looking down at him. Ignoring the pain that shot through his body, he stood to his full height, making himself the tallest in the room - when it came to Ronnie, it wasn't by much, but he was almost a head taller than the Bobby girl and that was basically the initial aim.

Spying his bag in the corner of the room, he walked over to go and check it as he spoke, "Look, I'm sure we appreciate the help and all, but there is no way that I can stop here. I have to get going as soon as possible." he turned to look a Bobby who was narrowing her eyes with an expression on her face close to outrage.

"Oh, and by the way," Bobby added, "thanks for not, you know, leaving me out on the streets to bleed to death."

Troy raised an eyebrow at her attitude before taking a step closer to her. He would play along, sure. "Hey, and thanks for not letting me get suffocated and raped last night." he finished with a sarcastic thumbs up.

Bobby narrowed her eyes some more, only adding to Troy's disinterestedly amused expression. Not that he was smiling. He hadn't cracked a real smile since he began to run.  
"You're welcome." she spat, folding her arms stubbornly while Troy readjusted the backpack on his shoulder in a way that prevented the most pain.

Ronnie took the next pause as a chance to air his opinion. "Yeah well... they've got a working shower here so I thought we might wanna take the advantage while we can." he shrugged.

Troy nodded silently, and then turned his head to Bobbie, questioning her with his eyes. This was more her place than anyone else's anyway. So for one second, Bobby's face was easily read - shock and confusion were evidently displayed up front before she quickly recomposed herself.

There was something about Troy that was defiantly hostile under the surface, bubbling away. There was something commanding. And yet, there he was, asking of her permission with his eyes. Bobby gave a curt nod, indicating that it was okay for him to venture further into her territory and take a shower, then ripped her eyes away from his electric blue ones. It was from that moment that she really felt the force pulling her towards him. It wasn't as if from the first moment she had really seen the guy, unconscious, slumped against the alley wall, she had denied that he was good looking - despite the fact that he was covered in grime and blood. But it was when he had woken that she felt the first pleasant burn of attraction. It was the attitude. It was the eyes. Whatever it was, she wanted it. She watched him head towards the bathroom, wondering if he might hold even more for her when he came back, fresh.

* * *

Myra had been dreading this. The one secret that wasn't supposed to get out, got out.

It was times like these that she wished she hadn't run when one of her best friends admitted to being with 'whiteBoy.' as everyone called him. Although, now that she knew a little of the truth, she didn't like calling him that too much any more. It felt wrong. She wished that she could just know his real name. She wished she could talk to her other best friend, Keri, about it. But she was on Drew Baylor's side now.

The girl sighed and looked over at Keith, her sort-of boyfriend. He was only 'sort-of' because she was secretly a little freaked out about how strongly she felt about him and didn't think she wanted anyone to know as this was so out of the norm for her. So she had decided to tell him that she wanted to take things slow with him and poor Keith still hadn't complained about the sudden slow pace.

Her sort-of boyfriend took her hand and gave her a sympathetic look as he whispered in her ear so that nobody else in the room would be able to hear. "You know it's for the best, baby. What've we got to lose?"

_Um, my former best friend who I still care about even though she was with whiteBoy. behind all of our backs!_

Not that this thought could be voiced out loud, of course. Everyone attending there would think of it as rather a selfish one.

Myra had been on a rocky enough road as it was.

News that whiteBoy. had escaped from Drew spread like a wildfire even drier than the one the rumors about him were spread on that caused all of this shit to start in the first place. This had forced everyone to take a side. Immediately repulsed by Andrew Baylor's attitude towards the whole thing, while still feeling pretty put off by the years that she had joined the crowd and treated whiteBoy. with the same respect of everyone else in her school (Less than none.) , she had boldly created her own side of the war. As a group they liked to think of themselves as the Free Thoughts - free to think about the situation exactly what they believed and not what anyone told them to. They were against Baylor. But they weren't with whiteBoy.

Sometimes Myra wondered if the general hatred towards whiteBoy. was a brainwash effect. _Who had decided that everyone should hate in the first place anyway? In fact, who labeled him whiteBoy.? The guy has to have a name... doesn't he?_ Either way, she couldn't take his side even if she wanted to. Why would he even allow her to come within remotely close quarters of him after the way she had treated him all of those years. The same way as everyone else. He wouldn't be able to trust her - and besides, he was running now - which pushed the only thing that both her a Baylor's group had in common. They both wanted information on the guy and his whereabouts.

And so you come back to the matter at hand. The secret that slipped. The possibility of someone who knows much more than just a little bit about him. Defiantly more than just his actual name.

Myra's mouth went dry as she cleared her throat, immediately silencing the room. "Okay guys. I've heard all of your opinions now and...and I... I think you're right. It's worth a shot." she swallowed thickly. "We need to find her. Gabriella Montez."

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**AN: Did you enjoy?? Sorry it took so long but it's been HECTIC I can tell you.**

******As you can see the side characters in'whiteBoy.' are going to be mroe prominent in this and I hope that you enjoy their point's of view.**

**So what's Gabriella going to DOO??! :O ********Find out sooooooooooooooooooon. And then tell me about it in a review. ;)**

**Anyway _PLEASE REVIEW_ whether you thought it sucked, rocked or was plain average. LET ME KNOW! - How else am I supposed to figure these things out?? By _myself??_**

**Love, love, love**

**whirlergirl .x.**


	3. Part 20: Secrets

**Secrets.**

* * *

Pacing around her room anxiously, Gabriella thought. She thought about how the unimaginable was becoming imaginable. It wasn't a nightmare. It was reality. Troy had gone, and with him he had torn out a part of herself. Her body throbbed with the ache he had left in her chest. _So what good is it doing just sitting here? _It was a question she had had to ask him before. But now? Now it was time to ask herself.

So by the time the clock hit 2pm, it was decided. There was no way she was going to waste any more time. Troy had made his move. Now it was time to make hers.

As she began re-packing her bag, another thought came to mind. She was about to go back into Troy's room. His room. Troy. _Troy..._ The backs of her eyes stung as she opened up his window and dragged herself in, as she let herself breathe in his familiar scent.

They had met months ago of which to Gabriella felt like years. In fact, Gabriella could still remember her suprise when she realized that after four years of his living in her town, he only lived one floor below her apartment, easily accessible to her via the fire escape - And vice versa.

Going inside his closet, she took some shirts and sweaters that she figured would keep her warmer than her own. Then she crept into his bathroom, looking for anything either of them might need should things go to plan. His living quarters were a mess from his frantic search for necessities before he ran. Clothes were thrown everywhere.

She had eveything that she needed, however, just as she turned to leave, something made the back of her neck prickle. Curiosity slowly ran it's cruel fingers down her spine, daring her. Slowly, she turned around on the balls of her feet, eyes locked on one and only one thing. The drawer.

The drawer that he had always been placing secrets inside, the drawer that he had left the foreboding note of his departure directly above. Inside that space there were secrets. Secrets that she had never thought to question or mistrust. Until now. Now things were different. Promises had been broken and secrets had been spilt. _What difference would it make to uncover just one more?_

With great precision and care, Gabriella stepped towards his desk, hands outstretched. Soon enough she felt the cool metal of the drawer handle against her fingertips. A small voice in the back of her head warned her to stop, to respect his privacy and leave him this one thing - But the pull towards the mystery was too great.

_Would it be stupid?_ Gabriella wondered. _Just full of porn or something? Or sinister? Packed with knives and other weapons...?_ It wouldn't be too surprising to find knives. She knew he carried one around anyway... and that if need be, he would use it.

Unable to take it any longer, Gabriella yanked it open, stepping back, not knowing what to expect.

Of course it was anything but.

At first sight, it seemed to be a bunch of papers. Hundreds and hundreds of pieces of paper, all covered in his scrawl. It seemed impossible that so many could fit in there like it was time lord science or something.

Gingerly, she reached out to take what seemed to be the freshest piece of paper, seemingly shoved recklessly into it's place on top of all the others as it was crumpled and slightly torn at one side, hastily folded in what was meant to be half, managing to hide whatever inscription bore its other side. With the slowest of paces, she used both of her small, lightly tanned hands to uncover the mystery.

Of course this shocked her even more.

* * *

Drew was tired of this. He was impatient, always impatient. So ready to get things done, to get up and go, make no preparations, no plans, just do it. Just ram the spears of hatred in deep while you can, while the anger lasts, while you feel powerful. Because the power wont be there forever. Hold on to the red. Hold on to the bloodlust and you'll arrive on top.

Jumoke watched fearfully at the crazy look in his friends eye. This had simply started off as something that everyone else was doing, it was just following the crowd. But now he was scared. More scared than he would ever like to admit. But there was no way that he was going to back out now. No way. He had to stick it out because he was a man. That's what men do. It sounded like something his father might have once said before he died in that gang fight... No point in thinking about his father though, he had decided, no thinking about the past and the pasts' mistakes, just look ahead. Look ahead to the fear and excitement.

"Jumoke." Andrew called in a deep voice to gain his friends attention. Jumoke turned to him wordlessly, nodding his head. "Get a couple of us together... Now you'll find out what it's like to have a real fight." He turned away, knowing just how to control the people around him. "All the fight that you can stomach..."

And Jumoke left, like a little boy again, receiving orders from his parents that were now long gone, his mind a filthy blur of acceptance and pride and twisted antipathy.

* * *

Poems.

Pulling the entire box of a drawer out of the desk itself, she tipped it upside down and desperately scrabbled around to skim over the others. Poems upon poems upon poems. Maybe a couple of lyrics chucked in there. This was surprisingly hard to take in as Gabriella sat on the floor, completely speechless. _Who'd have thought it? ...I mean..._ _Troy_ Bolton.

As she searched through his workings, something else pulled her attention. Curious markings on some of the poems... Dates. Once again her mind went into overload as she scrabbled around to find the one marked as the most recent.

And she found it. It was oddly written as the different verses or stanzas (she wasn't sure which) all had a different date over each one, indicating that every verse - or stanza - were written at different periods of time. In fact, it had begun to be written months ago - yet the date over the last paragraph insisted that it was formed only a few days ago.

_Gabriella Begins_

_My mind assures me, "It's all or nothing."  
I am not worried, I am not overly concerned.  
My mind implores me, "For one time only,make an exception." I am not worried.  
Wrap her up in a package of lies,  
Send her off to a coconut island.  
I am not worried, I am not overly concerned with the status of my emotions.  
"Oh, it says, "you're changing."  
We're always changing.  
It does not bother me to say this isn't love._

_Because if you don't want to talk about it then it isn't love.  
And I guess I'm gonna have to live with that.  
But I'm sure there's something in a shade of gray,  
Or something in between,  
And I can always change my name If that's what you mean._

_My mind assures me, "It's all or nothing."  
But I am not really worried, I am not overly concerned.  
You try to tell yourself the things you try to tell yourself to make yourself forget. To make yourself forget.  
I am not worried.  
__"If it's love," I think, "then we're gonna have to think about the consequences."  
But I can't stop shaking and I can't stop touching her and  
__  
__This time her kindness falls like rain. It washes me away. And then she Begins to change her mind.  
"These seconds when I'm shaking leave me shuddering for days," I say.  
And I'm not ready for this sort of thing.  
But I'm not gonna break and I'm not gonna worry about it anymore.  
I'm not gonna bend, and I'm not gonna break. And I'm not going to worry about it anymore._

_It seems like I should say, "As long as this is love..."  
But it's not all that easy, so maybe I should  
Snap her up in a butterfly net  
And pin her down on a photograph album.  
I am not worried... cuz I've done this sort of thing before.  
But then I start to think about the consequences,  
And I don't get no sleep in a quiet room and_

_This time when her kindness falls like rain It washes me away. And hen I Begin to change my mind.  
And every time I see her I believe it's love and,  
Oh lord, I'm not ready for this sort of thing._

_She's talking in her sleep.  
It's keeping me awake. And then she Begins to toss and turn.  
And every word is nonsense but I understand and,  
Oh lord, I'm not ready for this sort of thing._

_Her kindness bangs a gong,  
It's moving me along. And then she Begins to fade away.  
It's chasing me away.  
She disappears, and Oh lord, I'm not ready for this sort of thing._

It was about her. Utterly completely and undoubtedly about her. Gabriella Montez. When he first stared to have feelings for her, right to when he stayed with her the night of the storm. She talked in her sleep?! _A bit embarrassing - but now that's not important..._ and there were music notes written onto the other side. Was it a song? There wasn't time to figure it out. Slowly and carefully she added the papers to the bag, trying to blink back silly tears that gave away how cracked up she felt, to her own embarrassment. _Stupid, stupid, stupid_ she thought.

Gabriella quickly swept herself outside, shutting the window behind her and climbed down the fire escape ladder with only the faintest ideas of where the hell she might be going.  
But right then, as she turned to her right, she was met with a sight that would force her to wonder if any of her half thought out plans were ever going to matter.

* * *

**AN: Thank you to all you beautiful people who reviewed! And thanks to those who tried to help me find that story I asked about. But I'm pretty sure that it's been deleted. It's the only thing that I can come up with. :( Never mind, I shall go on! ;)**

**I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and remember if you didn't _REVIEW ANYWAY!!! _It's super important to me to know exactly what you think because otherwise I would be LOST. :O**

**Thanks again, I'll see you soon! ;D**

**Love, love, love,**

**whirlergirl .x.**


	4. Part 21: Gabriella's turn

**AN: Hi! I know I've been a really crap updater lately and I am so sorry about that! Seriously, I love you all so much for sticking with me - you are the best! And I'd just like to say an extra-special thank you to a certain, 'cuzimbored' - I got the awsomest PM and it made my day. Even though my computer is all virusy and yuck and keeps having little meltdowns... Right now, cuzimbored is writing a totally AH-MAZING story called My Worst Enemy, so if you haven't read it - what's wrong with you?! It's not one you want to miss. :)  
Anyway! Thanks a bunch, and here is...**

* * *

**Gabriella's turn.**

* * *

Gabriella stopped in her tracks. There she was.

Myra.

She was standing in front of a small group of menacing-looking young people. People who she thought she knew. People that she had grown up with. _This is it._ Gabriella thought. _I'm going to die. I'm going to die by the hands of one of my best friends._ She couldn't understand how this had all worked out so fast. How she was willing to actually finish her life. All she knew was that if they asked for any information on where he was... anything about him... she knew she wouldn't give it. It was too precious. Even if it killed her.

Merely months ago she thought that she could organize her life. Make her own decisions. Get a plan and get out. she remembered thinking. Her whole life was ahead of her and she was going to make something out of it. She was convinced. Now everything was a whole lot less convincing.

There she stood, ready to throw it all away for a boy. _No. Not a boy - A man_. she reminded herself. _The most incredible that I have ever met_.

Slowly, she closed her eyes and stepped forward.

* * *

A blister was beginning to form on Bobbie's foot.  
Every time that she took another step, it rubbed on the inside of her shoe, causing unmeasurable irritation. While the guys carried on walking, she stopped and yanked off her sneaker before more delicately removing her sock, revealing what looked a hell of a lot worse than it felt a second ago. Gross. Thinking fast, she unclipped a dangling safety pin connecting the small rip in her backpack and popped it.

Painfully, puss oozed out before it quickly became a small amount of blood. Unaware that Troy and Ronny had noticed her absence and backtracked, she jumped a little when she felt Ronny's hand on her shoulder.

"Ouch." he muttered, gesturing to her foot.

"Yeah," she agreed, mopping up a bit of the blood with her sleeve, then trying to flick it away somewhere.

Troy fumbled around in his backpack and then knelt in front of her. He sighed over-dramatically, as if Bobbies injury was a real pain and general waste of time. "Good thing one of us thought to bring these," he said as he revealed a bandage in front of her. Picking up her water bottle, he poured a little of the clear liquid inside onto the impurity on her foot before tightly and carefully wrapping the bandage around it. "There," he muttered once he'd finished his work. "Can you walk on it okay?"

Bobby tested it against the ground, hiding her cringe. "Yeah."

"Good." and they walked together again. They walked, and hid, then rested, then walked. To where? Troy had a couple of ideas for safe spots around the town, but the aim was to keep on moving. Make no routine, no permanence. Just keep on moving, keep safe. _Keep Gabriella safe... _

Something crashed inside what the group had previously thought was an empty building - They thought wrong. A group of young teenagers peered over the roof, throwing god-knows-what down at passers by from their height. Not a direct threat, but not exactly a help either. Water bombs filled with watery mud and things left in drainpipes rained down upon them before they could react, coating Ronnie and Troy's heads in filth, but not missing Bobby's shoes. Those kids had pretty good aim. Luckily, their instincts kicked in before the youths could re-stock for the next blow and they made a run for it. The last thing they heard was their insane giggling floating away.

"I told you!" Troy fumed, "I told you we shouldn't be out here in the daylight - but do you listen? No. And now look where it's gotten us. We'll be spotted a mile off-"

"-Or smelled a mile off" Ronnie pitched in as he gingerly sniffed his armpits before cringing away at his own stench.

"You're not helping the case, Ron." Bobby scowled.

There was a pause.

"Now what are you gonna do about it? Huh?" Troy demanded.

"Hey," Ronnie said in his ever-chilled tone of voice, "I have ideas..."

* * *

Little did they know it, both girls were thinking exactly the same thing.

_This is it._

Myra took one step forward, impressed by how Gabriella stood her ground. It was right then. Right then. Right at that moment when she uttered the words that no one thought she would ever say to Gabriella Montez. Including herself.

"I'm sorry," she said quietly, "but I'm not here to hurt you Gabriella. I promise."

Gabriella had to blink a couple of times to process what Myra had just said. "You what?"

"I said I was sorry." she took a few more steps forward so that she could speak to her without anybody else hearing. "I'm not saying that I forgive you for what you did, but I'm sorry that things _happened_ the way they did. I know I reacted badly and I think we need to talk about it... I mean, if you can, if you want to. I'm here to help."

Gabriella looked at her best friend with suspicion, weighing up how sincere her voice sounded. "If you're not going to hurt me... If you're here to help and talk to me, then why are they here?" she asked, still believing she was in for the worst.

"I know it looks bad," Myra replied, taking everything in to her stride, expecting all of this questions, "but they're just like you and me, Gabs, "she said, slipping in her nickname almost naturally to try and put her at ease, "they're freaked out by all of this. They want to know what's going on. They want answers-"

"-I don't have any." Gabriella interrupted. "And if you've got Baylor and the rest of his crew hiding behind there," she said, indicating towards Keith who was standing at the front of the group of people, "then you might as well bring me down right now."

A slow smile began to pull at the corners of her lips. Now she knew how to get her on their side. "We're not with Baylor, girl. We're against him. If anyone thinks it's anyone else's fault why this shit's happened, then they're wrong."

To be honest Gabriella actually could think of people who contributed to all of the shit going on, but she could tell that Myra meant what she was telling her, and what she was telling her was that she wasn't with Baylor.

Myra McKessie was getting one more chance.

* * *

Keith watched on as the group, plus Gabriella, walked back to Myra's place. He _had_ to talk to her, he just _had_ to. There was no other time for it. So when Gabriella wandered off into the kitchen to get a glass of water, checking no one was watching or following, he silently entered the room and softly closed the door.

On first sight of him, Gabriella jumped, then cleared her throat, ready to shout for Myra, when Keith blurted out something very unexpected.

"Are you okay?"

Gabriella frowned in confusion. She could tell that Keith was reaching for a deeper meaning in his words, but she couldn't depict what that was. But she didn't let herself trust him. After all, he was one of Andrew Baylor's first best friends around West-Brick. He should be on his side. It wouldn't surprise her if he was leaking information to him.

"What do you want?" Gabriella kept her voice steady against her building nerves, "shouldn't you be with Baylor right now? With _Drew_?" she tauntingly used his shortened name, her voice acidic, "Isn't that where your loyalty lies now?" he eyes narrowed as another thought came to her mind, "or are you moving on to the next one of us? You're done with me."

"Did he hurt you?" Keith gushed, "Did he... they... I mean, Jesus I can't believe... I... they didn't... did they? Did they..." he was beginning to mumble to himself, his voice desperately guilt-ridden.

Suddenly Gabriella's mind was once again involuntarily whipped back to the time when Drew and Jumoke had attacked her. Fury spread through her bones. Sure, Keith wasn't there. He wasn't necessarily part of it. But he didn't do what Troy did, either. He didn't protect her. And right then, she knew that there was no way she could ever fully trust him. However, she trusted his guilt - that was real. She trusted his angst. She trusted his feelings towards Myra. But that was all she could allow herself. And that wasn't enough for her to talk any of this through with him. Not yet.

"I don't wanna talk to you, Keith. Not now."

At that moment, everyone was called into the other room to start the discussion. And if you listened hard enough, you could probably hear the whispers hiding behind the windows.

* * *

It was a pointless-looking thing. It really was. But it was a genius thing.

"What the hell is this place?" asked Troy.

"This," said Ronnie, "is our savior."

It was an old, beaten up shower head that looked dirt, dusty and extremely out of use, hanging on the side of another abandoned building. Unlike the boarded-up one that Troy knew so well, this one had a wall completely broken through, leading into a downstairs bathroom, and it was proud to bear its scar to the world. The world in this case being Troy, Ronnie and Bobby.

Troy tugged at the handle, meaning to switch it on. Nothing happened.

Bobby sighed, "this is such a piece of sh-"

The shower burst into life.

Bobby's breath caught in her throat as she watched Troy shower, shirtless. She pursed her lips in approval as she watched his muscles contract under his skin as he lifted up his arm to rub a bar of soap through his hair. Thankfully the day was oddly fair and they wouldn't freeze to death. Troy had opted to actually remove the shower head from it's holder against the wall so he could wash his upper body without ruining his jeans which he was not removing in Bobby's presence, much to her silent disappointment.

Also to her disappointment, she hadn't received much of a reaction when she had earlier proceeded to remove her shirt, leaving her standing in just her bra and sweat pants. Ronnie chewed his nails, as usual, and Troy passed her the bar of soap, then walked off to search through his backpack. But she was sure she could find a way to bring him closer to her if she tried. Bobby knew for a fact that she was attractive. She wasn't particularly arrogant about it, but she knew her looks would always be there if she needed some extra help. Now was her perfect opportunity. Troy was attractive, young and heck, he was goddamn well-built. All she had to do was try and find a way into his pants before someone else stepped in her way.

* * *

"So wheres the note now?"

"It's gotta be somewhere in my room still," Gabriella replied, remembering Troy crumpling it in his fist in anger before chucking it somewhere.

"And you can't really remember what it said anymore? Not at all?"

"Thats why we're walking back to my place, isn't it?"

After some talking was done, Gabriella had agreed to give some kind of help as to how serious Andrew Baylor was getting. She told Myra about the threatening notes he had sent her all those weeks ago and, Myra being Myra, had wanted to see it for herself as Gabriella couldn't quite remember exactly what it said - Although the basic message was clear.

The two were still on a rocky road to resurrecting their cracked friendship, but now was a time where they knew safety was in numbers and figured Gabriella was a lot safer with the Free Thoughts. Behind the pair of girls was Keith and a couple more assorted members of the group, just to be careful.

Looking up at the twilight sky, Gabriella felt her eyes wet before blinking back the tears at the memories that it brought with it and quickly climbed up the fire escape, bag still over her shoulder and silently crept into her bedroom.

Myra waited at the door whilst Gabriella crawled on the floor looking for the note. It felt pretty strange, being at Gabriella's place. It felt as though it ought to be familiar, but it wasn't. And as she stood there waiting, staring at the paint-peeled door, she found herself thinking about the past again, about the times when Gabriella and her and Keri hung out all the time and it suddenly occurred to her that she had hardly ever gone round to Gabriella's place back then. In fact, as far as she could remember, she's only been there a couple of times before. And even then she hadn't been eagerly invited inside.

But that was a lifetime ago...

"Here, I've got it," Gabriella's words broke Myra's thoughts as they began going back down the fire escape ladder, Gabriella's bag bouncing against her back as she took the last hop. The bag alone made Myra curious as to how long she would be willing to stay with them... and by the way she never let go of the ratty thing, it didn't seem like she was planning a long trip.

After being handed the small piece of paper, Myra adjusted her eyes to read under the starlight.

_If anyone ever finds out, I will kill you, Montez. You will die._  
_No fucking superhero's gonna save you next time, don't you worry._  
_Keep it zipped, princess. _

"What happened?" Myra asked quietly, to make sure no one else could hear except Gabriella. "What aren't people supposed to find ou-"

"-THERE THEY ARE! GET EM!"

It was an unreal blur. It was Baylor's gang. It was them. It was hate in human form, crawling over the horizon like demons spilling out of hell. It was time to run.

Snatching the note from Myra's hand, Gabriella bolted. They had come back to find her and they succeeded. Yep - her and a dozen more that she was certain they would be willing to sacrifice in the process.

It was officially Gabriella's turn to run.

* * *

**AN: Just so you know, I'm not entirly satisfied with this chapter. I can't really pin point a reason just yet but something isn't right...  
I know that a lot of you have all been wondering when T&G are gonna get back together and I say - All in due time!!! I promise youa reunion soon! ;D  
Rember to _REVIEW!!! _no matter what you thought, as long as you tell me exactly what that was. If you ask questions or are just generally interesting, I will reply. ;)**

**Love, love, love,**

**whirlergirl .x.  
**


	5. Part 22: Vanilla twilight

**AN: Hey guys!!!  
Hope you like this chapter, I sure liked writing it. :) And I think I have to give another shout out to _cuzimbored _as you were a totally awsome help. :D  
Bon apetite! ;)**

**

* * *

**

**Vanilla Twilight.**

Making no hesitation, Gabriella bee-lined for the door leading to Troy's bike space. Fuck! She had forgotten that he had boarded it up in his anger. Not daring to look over her shoulder yet, she desperately pulled away anything and everything that she could to the extent that her fingers began to bleed. The shouting was getting louder. They'd spot her soon.

Where was that feeling? Where was that ultimate fear? The fight for survival? She was desperate, but apparently not enough so to break through to safety. And then-

"There she is!"

Suddenly adrenaline was pumping through her veins, complete survival instincts fueling her actions, her will to live winning over the blockade. With a final urgent pull she attempted to swing the door open. The gap extended by only a few mroe inches.

"I got her-!"

Faster than she had ever thought it could be physically possible, Gabriella forced her body through the narrow opening and into the darkness of the empty room. Starlight shone strong through the gap she had made to enable herself to squirm through. Her first thought -_How the hell did I manage to get through that?!_ was pushed aside as she heard more people scrambling at the door, like wild dogs starving for their prey.

It was madness.

The girls eyes sought hungrily for an escape option, an exit other than the way in she had just created. There was none. She was dead. She was a rabbit in it's hole whilst foxes clawed at the entrance just waiting for her to come out. _Shit.  
_  
It was right then when the sheeted item caught her attention. It called to her. Hardly thinking, she ripped away the cloth, revealing the damaged beauty of the bike, vandalized and humiliated, yet still standing. It wasn't supposed to work. Troy's face alone when he saw it should have killed it. The sadness in his eyes. Now the memory fueled Gabriella to life. She checked the breaks. Fine. The steering? Fine. The wheels? She thought her eyes must be playing tricks on her in the darkness. Unslashed. Whoever touched this bike was definitely not Baylor himself. Just a bad artist running on someone else's anger.

Groping through her mind and into her memory as she pulled the bike so that it was facing the door, she tried to remember everything that he had taught her. _Where the fuck did the clutch go?_ Her thoughts were in a frenzy. _Oh, there.  
_  
The bike roared to life and Gabriella's new eyes of steel were set on the door ahead of her. The door that would be broken down any second. Instantly cooling sweat trickled down the back of her neck. And as she waited, something terrible began to happen - she started to think. _No. No time for thoughts_, she convinced herself, _just do. Just go. Rev the engine and-  
_  
The door bust open as the bike went hurtling forward. Expressions on the dark faces from the other side turned from triumphant to terrified as people desperately tried to get out of her way. If they weren't fast enough, she would run them down. Simple as that. A smile crossed her face that was anything but content as she blindly sped off to nowhere. They would find her again. They would hunt her down if it meant they could find whiteBoy.  
But not today.

So it wasn't surprising that nobody noticed Keith slip away into the direction she was headed during all the commotion.

* * *

"You lost her?!" Andrew screamed, "Again?!"

"That little bitch stole that bike we messed up. High-tailed it right on out of there."

"Who's job was it to take care of the bike?" Drew snarled.

"It was Joey's right?"

"Nah, it was Omar."

"Am I the only one who thought it was Mickey?"

"Shut. Up!" The room went silent.

"Keri?!" he called the slender girl from the next room.

As she stepped inside, all eyes turned to her, judging her. Gabriella had been her friend after all. But Jumoke was the only one who was really watching.

He watched as her graceful footsteps shamed the heavy clumping of all the men around her. He saw her hunched form and the way it almost symbolized bowing. Bowing to the presence of Andrew Baylor. The shine of fear in her eyes. The glow of her black skin against the shitty yellow lighting that illuminated the room. The brand new black bruise under her eye. She was becoming on puppet, and only Andrew Baylor had hold of the strings. It was almost like looking into a mirror.

He watched as his friend grabbed her by the arm and shook her. "You know about this?!"

"About what?" she whispered fearfully.

"Your _Gabriella_. Running away from us. Just like her shitty little fuck buddy."

Keri's mouth opened to protest, to stick up from her friend and maybe even (to her own shock and surprise) for Tr-whiteBoy. But she snapped it shut. The cost would be too high.

But not fast enough. "You know anything about that?" Drew asked her, "Hmmm? Know what's she's been doin' with that kid?" he tutted.

_I know exactly what she did with him..._ Keri thought. But only to herself. "She would never-" she began in a whisper.

"But she did!" Drew snarled, coming too close for comfort, "Can you believe it, sugar? Hmmm? That girl was meant to be your friend huh? I know what you chicks are like with those friendships. But she's gone. She left you. For _scum_."

"She didn't..." Keri's hushed protests were silenced immediately by his last words to her.

"They betrayed you, princess. Betrayed _us_," he gestured to the other people in the room, then sniffed indifferently, "Both of them did."

And she was forced to wonder.

_Did they?_

_Myra? Gabriella? ...Where **are** you?_

The rain began to pour, right on cue.

* * *

She had never been so fast in her life. Pelting down the streets that she used to think were home, she sped. But not for long.

Riding without a helmet had been stupid. Sure, it meant she could feel the wind rushing through her un-brushed hair, but it also meant she could feel something else. The Rain. The very first drop hit her on the end of her nose, almost causing her to completely lose control of the bike and probably kill herself.

But killing herself was simply not in the cards. Not when she had a mission to complete. And if it was the last thing she did, she was going to come through for herself. There had to be somewhere that she could stop. Somewhere she could shelter.

This was the time when she really needed some kind of abandoned building. There had to be one somewhere near, the town was practically littered with them. In no time she found one that was perfect. Unlike the boarded-up one that she and Troy knew so well, this one had a wall completely broken through, leading into a downstairs bathroom, and it was proud to bear its scar to the world. The world in this case being Gabriella and the bike. On its gaping wall was an old, beaten up shower head that looked dirty, dusty and extremely out of use. It was hanging pathetically with a couple of water droplets leaking through. Gabriella didn't have time for a shower though, nor did she had time to think. Her mind was only focusing on getting inside, getting in the dry. The desire was tormenting her, driven by the water that kept pouring all around her, filling her head.

The rain kept on pouring.

She squeezed her eyes shut and clamped her hands over her ears as she rocked back and forth on the building's floor, still hearing the empty threats made by the rain drumming on the roof tiles.

Gabriella carried on rocking, her arms wound tightly around her knees. "Troy..." she whispered. It was the only source of comfort that might bring her any hope. "Troy," she repeated to herself, her rocking slowing down. Tears of sorrow and anger began to form in her eyes. "Troy..." she sobbed.

Maybe she should have told someone when it was all starting. A friend. A teacher. The police.  
But it was almost too late now and she just couldn't bear the thought of her mother knowing any of this. She had been protecting the woman that gave her life since she was ten years old and it just didn't make sense to Gabriella to stop doing that - even if it meant putting herself in danger. Her friends were no where in sight now that they knew the truth and the police would find a whole lot more than some gang violece in they started snooping around west-brick. She was in the middle of enough trouble as it was and, Jesus, only seventeen.

Thinking better of herself, she ran up the squeaky staircase to the second floor, not being precarious as to whether it was stable enough to hold her weight as she should and once might have done.

Gabriella glanced wistfully through the holes in the roof that allowed droplets of water to come through. It would last for a few more nights, but not much longer. But the stability of the building was the last thing on her mind as she stared at the sky. It was as if she could feel his presence. As if he had really walked through this strange place with a broken wall and rusty shower head.

As she stood the sky became pitch and gashed with lightning. And at her deepest moment of pure desperation Gabriella opened her mouth and yelled out loud, "Troy!" she screamed upwards, competing with the thunder. And she even half-expected him to appear, because she wanted him so much.

* * *

Troy looked up at the thunderous sky. It was heartbreaking to be a witness to the rain, knowing what he knew - she would be somewhere, it didn't matter where, and she would be upset, scared, crying. It didn't matter where he was. It didn't matter at all. Because she wasn't with him. And for one fleeting moment, it was almost as if he could hear his name being screamed across the sky, making him feel more alone than ever.

Ignoring Ronnie and Bobby's suggestions that he get some sleep, he pulled out another piece of paper and, for what felt like the hundredth time, he wrote.

_The stars lean down to kiss you,_  
_And I lie awake I miss you,_  
_Pour me a heavy dose of atmosphere._  
_I'll doze off safe and soundly,_  
_But I'll miss your arms around me  
__I'd send a postcard to you dear,  
Cause I wish you were here._  
_  
I watched the night turn light blue,  
But it's not the same without you,  
Because it takes two to whisper quietly,  
The silence isn't so bad,  
Until I look at my hands and feel sad,  
Because the spaces between my fingers  
Are right where yours fit perfectly.  
_  
_I'll find repose new ways,  
Though I haven't slept in two days,  
As cold nostalgia chills me to the bone._  
_But drenched in Vanilla twilight,  
I'll sit in the darkness all night,  
Waist deep in thought because when I think of you._  
_I don't feel so alone.  
_  
_As many times as I blink I'll think of you tonight._  
_I'll think of you tonight.  
_  
_When violet eyes get brighter,_  
_And heavy wings grow lighter,_  
_I'll taste the sky and feel alive again._  
_Wish I'd forget the world that I knew,_  
_But I swear I won't forget you,_  
_Oh if my voice could reach back through the past,  
I'd whisper in your ear,  
Oh darling I wish you were here.  
_  
He remembered the nights they had spent on the fire escape stairs together. It seemed like an entire lifetime ago.

_A better lifetime?_ he wondered.

_Yes._ he thought, _She was in it._

_

* * *

_

**AN: What'dya think? Like it, loath it? Doesn't matter JUST LET ME KNOW IN YOUR REVIEW K? And to do that you would actually have to press that button on the bottom of the screen. ;) It's not that hard - I spend I dunno how long on each chapter, it's nice to get a couple of lines feedback. :)  
Oh, and if you ask questions and stuff in your reviews I will reply! Of course this is always helpful if you ALLOW PM'S. A couple of you don't allow this and I really don't get why cuz all it does is prevent me from either thanking you or making something clear or whatever. **

**So remember, _REVIEW AND ALLOW. _Let's say it all together - _REVIEW AND ALLOW!!!!_ :D**

**Love, love, love,**

**whirlergirl .x.**


	6. Part 23: It's you

**AN: Hey guyssss! I know, I know, it's been a while, but this chapter was harder for me to write than usual and mentioning that, I have to give a HUGE THANKYOU to _cuzimbored_! You have been the most amazing help with this one and I just can't thank you enough. You are totally incredible, (despite my E-mailing issues!) and this thing wouldn't have been half as good without you. And to the rest of you guys, if you haven't checked out her stuff then you've gotta be a little InsaneInTheBrain mate. She's special in the best way. :D **

**Enjoy, folks! ;D**

* * *

**It's You.**

Troy looked through the broken window. Dust settled on the remaining glass like snow on a winters day.

They had stayed at the building all night and Troy had had put up with Ronnie's snores and Bobby's sleep talking which strangely enough turned out to not be so bad, as in a way, they had somehow managed to give out a small supply of comfort to him and it made Troy feel just a little less lonely.

"Shut up!" A muffled order sounded from the room next door.

"Dude! I'm telling you the truth! I just gotta-"

Troy swiftly got up on his feet, all his senses coming alert at the voice that somewhere deep in his mind, he somehow recognized. He took a step forward towards the door but took two steps back as Ronnie burst through it, facing Troy with someone familiar wriggling slightly in his grip whilst Bobby rested her hand on Ronnie's shoulder impassively.

"You know this guy?" Ronnie asked Troy, sounding as serious as anyone had ever heard him, "he said he knows you and wants to talk to you," his voice dropped a little, whispering as if telling a secret or something important he didn't want anybody else to hear, "he said something about Gabriella."

At Gabriella's mention, Troy straightened up to his full height, his heart beating so hard, it was echoing in his ears and his hands clenched into fists without him even realizing it. He however calmly walked forward as he looked menacingly into Keith Young's eyes. "Let him go, Ron."

Complying to his sharp order, Ronnie released Keith from his grip but kept him at a close distance, just in case the kid would dare to try something funny. Keith stretched his back a little, now free from his bindings, but didn't move from his spot as Troy continued, looking straight into Ronnie's eyes. "Okay. Now pack your bags - We're getting out of here, it's not safe anymore." Bobby and Ronnie hovered. "Go!" Troy pushed, nodding to reassure them he could handle their new visitor on his own.

They rushed out, leaving Keith behind to face Troy. And the second the door shut, he turned his fiery gaze onto Keith, speaking through gritted teeth. "What did you say about Gabriella? Why are you here?" he demanded, "Are you here  
alone?"

Keith raised both of his hands in defense, "I know this looks bad, but please, please just hear me out. I came here to apologize, okay? I mean it. I mean... I just... I'm sorry, man."

Troy was taken aback. If there was anything he had expected, it wasn't an apology. "For what?" he asked, on his guards.

Keith knew it was now or never. The guilt, the uncertainty had been haunting him for what felt like a long time. If there was anytime he might be able to begin to piece anything together or at least have his say in the matter, it was in that moment. But he had no idea where he was supposed to begin and there was no doubt that Troy would push him until he got answers.

"Well," Keith started, "...Okay, you probably remember it... they said you were there. It still feels like yesterday because I've been stressing over it ever since..." he sighed, "you see, weeks ago, you know when. When everything kicked off. I was just hanging out with the guys, you know. Me, Drew and Jumoke, we had a couple of beers. It was nothing... But then we got to talking, and I knew that Baylor was interested in Gabriella, I knew it and I'll admit that, but I never thought..." he shook his head and then took a deep breath.

Troy knew exactly what he was talking about. He was talking about the night that Baylor and Jumoke had tried to attack Gabriella on her way home, which he had thankfully intervened into and managed to stop anything worse from happening. However, since then, people had been more suspicious of him then ever and it seemed to know no bounds. Not that it wasn't worth it though, of course. Troy would give anything if it meant that he would have still stepped in that day and saved the girl that he would fall in love with.

"Baylor." Keith continued with a pained tone, "he just... he said some... stuff. I didn't think anything would come of it, I didn't think... I mean, I knew he was getting kinda drunk but... he started saying this stuff - about Gabriella, I didn't even realize he was being serious at first... I mean, c'mon, she's Myra's best friend on top of everything else too and... I tried to stop him, I did, but he wasn't hearing it, man..." he sighed again, shaking his head. "He knocked me out cold and gave me this," he quickly gestured towards a scar-like marking above his left eye that Troy hadn't noticed before, "then the next day... I asked but, no one never tells me anything. So no one said anything and I didn't know and I still don't know nothin!" he shook his head dejectedly, "I'm not sayin its not my fault... but I wasn't able to stop anything-"

"But you tried," Troy found himself interrupting.

"A lot of good that did."

"Still."

"Well, I wanted to say I'm sorry. I really am man. And that I tried... I really did."

Troy nodded, not quite knowing how he was supposed to feel at that moment, "Thanks?" he said quietly but with the question mark connotation at the end. He really had no idea how to react. Should he trust the man or not? He could always be a trap to get to him. Once Troy would believe him then Keith could bring the others directly to him and he would surely be dead. He needed to be prudent, he decided.

Keith still looked deep in thought, "Dude..."

"I heard you okay?" Troy interrupted again, more sharply then he intended to, "And you know what? For some crazy reason I think that I'm actually thinking about forgiving you." No matter how silly that sounded or the fact the he didn't trust him, he was willing to forgive him. Keith sounded truly sincere and trusting and believing him were two different things. Besides, Keith seemed to be one of the most genuine people he had stumbled across in a long time. Apart from Gabriella, of course. No one could hold a light next to Gabriella.

"Really?" Keith asked, almost in disbelief but his face somehow hopeful.

Troy nodded. "How'd you find me?" he asked.

"I asked around," Keith admitted, willing to give any information if it meant helping to make any kind of amends, "it turns out there's a whole lot more homeless dudes around here than I thought. I gotta admit, a hell of a lot of them are just about the edgiest kids I've ever met. Anyway, I described you to the ones who would listen, even a couple a times to the ones that didn't... A lot a good that did. Then one of these guys, I dunno what he looked like really - all beardy and shit - he said he'd seen someone like you hangin around a dude called Ronnie. You know a Ronnie? Was that the guy that went half crazy when I mentioned your name?" after Troy gave him a small nod proving him correct, Keith continued, "like I said, they're touchy as hell - And well, the beard guy, he said Ronnie was hangin with Bobby and they'd probably be my best bet. Said you were headed this direction last time he saw you and that you'd probably squat someplace round here. He was right. Before that I was just with the Free Thoughts-"

"What's the 'Free thoughts'?"

"They're this other group," he explained, "they don't agree with what Baylor's doin'. I mean, man he is like, fucked in the head or some shit," he shook his head, perhaps a little in sympathy, "we don't think what he's doin is right.. It's not right. The way he's try'na get to you... there's something wrong there..."

"What, so everybody's on my side now?" Troy shot back sarcastically.

"Not exactly. There's no way they wanna team up with Drew, but they're not so hot on the idea of you either - But they like Myra. They like her opinions. They agree with what she says."

Troy noticed how Keith brightened as he talked about Myra, how when he talked about how people complimented her, he practically stiffened with pride and once again he was struck with that strange feeling of comradeship.

"So anyway," Keith continued, "Gabriella was with us for a while... and then... then Baylor caught up to us..."

Seeing the alarm in Troy's eyes, he hurridly interjected, "shes okay though! She's okay. At least I think she is..." he sighed, "basically one minute we're there, checkin out the scene, and then the next, there's a whole bunch of them all over us, and, shit, you can barley think... but then Gabriella comes ridin out on this motor bike thing, I mean dude I didn't know she could drive-"

"It works? The bike works?" Troy jumped, his eyes shining. "Gabriella was able to ride it?"

Keith frowned in confusion, "Uh, yeah... it was pretty amazing - given the chance, you could bet she would have run any one of them down."

The pale-skinned boy couldn't help but smile a little. _'That's my girl_.' he thought proudly.

"So I followed her in the direction she was headed - I parked my car by the side-"

"_Your_ car?"

"Okay, _a_ car." Keith smiled, "I parked _a_ car round the side. It's all goin okay until it starts raining. Then she stops at some house. It looked abandoned I guess. I didn't stop though. Shit, if I'd stopped I bet she would have slapped me in my face man or try to run away further! ...I don't blame her. I get that she won't trust me," he shrugged dejectedly before adding, "So I figured I'd just let her be. At least she was safe where she was hiding."

"She's okay then?"

"I think so. She's alone."

If only he knew how much those words broke Troy's heart. "She'll keep herself safe." he said quietly.

There was a pause where Troy lost himself in his thoughts.

"So I just wanted to say that I was sorry," Keith concluded, after scratching his throat. He was a little embarrassed by Troy's sudden silence. "I know that it's not much, not anything compared to-"

"I get it. And I... appreciate it." Troy reasoned.

Keith nodded. "I mean, I still don't understand it..." he wondered out loud, his mind taking him down a different route of thought, "I don't get why he hates you so much," he said, speaking of Andrew Baylor, "I mean, it's not like you're the only... um...

Troy's lips twitched, threatening to smile, "You can say it. After almost eighteen years, I've happened to notice that I'm white." "Yeah," Keith sent an apologetic smile back.

"Have you-"

"Troy! Come on! We gotta go," Ronnie poked his head quickly round the door frame and into their conversation before returning to Bobby.

"Oh, Right," Troy mumbled, quickly grabbing his stuff from the floor. "So you off back now?" he half-quipped.

Keith sighed after a short pause, "I know why you're doing this." "What? This? Isn't that kind of obvious? I really would like to see another day when I wake up."

"Well, yeah, you're doin it for you, but you're really doin it for her though aren't you?"

Troy just stayed silent. "You've gotta be real careful though. Baylor's gonna be getting pretty sick of the way you keep slipping through his fingers... soon enough, he's gonna start looking for Gabriella. And she's going to be easier to find. People know her round here-"

"I know that, okay? And you know what? I'm one of those people - I know her-"

"I'm not denying that." Keith dared to interrupt, "You probably know her better than anyone... but also what I'm saying is... Baylor's probably not completly sure right now... but if he figures out... I mean, what you would do... to protect her? He's gonna use it against you. You know he will. And you know that you'll do it - I don't blame you, you don't have a choice."

Troy shook his head a closed his eyes. It was too much. Way too much. "Screw this!" he announced.

"What?" Keith looked confused.

"I'm through. You said she's alone and you know it's not safe out there so tell me where she is- where's Gabriella? What house did she say she was at?"

Keith stumbled over his words, trying to get them out to supress Troy's sudden urgency slightly, "umm, I errr, sh-she's a couple of blocks back... pretty messed up place cuz there's an entire wall ripped off. You could almost see the entire bathroom... What are you doin man?"

Troy turned around as he was reaching the door and fixed his eyes on Keith, determination burning in his pupils, "I know the place," he said dryly, "I was there a short while ago. I'm going to find her. And you're coming with me, Young." Troy wasn't really keen on the boy's company, but he could always trade his life for his own or Gabriella's if needed.

Keith opened his mouth to decline the offer but quickly shut it when Troy's glare suddenly made his skin freeze. The message was clear: it wasn't a request. He sighed and took a step forward. He would just have to text Myra some other time.

* * *

It was all so stupid and unfair. So _very stupid_, when you thought about it. Which was what Keith was doing a lot of. All the reasons were pathetic, even his own. His mind was an empty mess as he followed Troy back the way he had came. At first it seemed stupid, going back to where the opposition was supposed to be, but then it also made sense, because why would anyone do that? Yeah, Baylor and co. were expecting the chase... just in the other direction. Not to mention the fact that he could easily imagine Troy would stop at no bounds when it came to Gabriella. It was strange for Keith to think that his common ground with Troy was the fact that they were both completly in love. Had he been told that a couple of months earlier, he would have laughed at the idea like there was no tomorrow.

Now that he could find a way to empathise with the other teenager, everything just seemed to be easier. He might even go as far to say that they were starting to become friends. It was hard for him to believe that Troy could actually be so forgiving. But he supposed the guy would have to be if he wanted anyone supporting him in this thing - and that was exactly what he needed.

"So who exactly are you?" asked Bobby who began to walk alongside him.

"I'm Keith," said Keith simply.

"Just Keith, huh?"

"Keith Young," he elaborated slightly.

"Hm," Bobby considered him, "got a girl, Keith?" she asked.

"Uh, yeah," he admitted, a little wary of the girl. She could be anywhere between the ages of sixteen and twenty-something, depending on how you looked at her.

Bobby rolled her eyes in disappointment, she had been getting bored with her fruitless attempts at alluring Troy and now his new friend didn't seem to be too promising either, "So you're not solo like him, huh?" she mentioned, nodding ahead in Troy's direction.

Keith thought for a moment, watching Troy's back before turning back to Bobby, "he's got someone waiting for him, you know?" he explained to her.

"What are you talking about?" Bobby frowned, determined to be right, she huffed, "... besides whoever she would be, she couldn't mean all that much if he'd ditch her for this."

"Whatever you say," Keith mumbled, guessing that she wouldn't accept it, even if she saw it for herself.

"What did you say?" Bobby snapped.

"Nothing," Keith replied.

"Yeah," Bobby agreed sternly, nodding, "nothing."

Back to walking on his own, Keith sighed as he worried about what might come up ahead, whether anyone had stayed behind, whether he was going to be okay, safe. Whether everyone else was going to be. Of course he expected trouble, but not exactly in the way that fate had decided to present it to them.

* * *

In a building about a block ahead, Gabriella sat by herself, listening to her breathing. She laid on the dusty floor, looking at the ceiling, lying on her right side. The building had a gaping wall that revealed it's only bathroom, containg a clogged toilet, a sink with no taps and a shower head, pathetically hanging off the wall.

Earlier that morning she had discovered that the bust-up shower head worked and quickly washed her hair, leaving it to dry in the winter breeze. She was freezing as she wrapped one of Troy's stolen sweaters around her body, breathing in his scent as her head lay on her shoulder bag which she had cleverly and religiously never let go of. For what it contained included something even more precious than her clothes. She carried with her, his words. Not all of them of course, just some that were nearest the top of the drawer.

Slowly and carefully she sat up and reached inside the bag until her fingers reached the paper inked with Troy's verses, crisp and indulgent. Gabriella's only link with the person from which she had been wrenched from. The person with whom she knew she belonged. Slowly, she unraveled a recently dated piece, not being able to stop herself from reading just a little of it.

_Watched my life pass me by  
in the rearview mirror  
Pictures frozen in time  
are becoming clearer  
I don't wanna waste another day  
stuck in the shadow of my mistakes_

Cause I want you  
and I feel you  
crawling underneath my skin  
Like a hunger, like a burning  
to find a place I've never been  
Now I'm broken, and I'm faded  
I'm half the man I thought I would be  
But you can have  
what's left of me.

That would be enough for now, she reasoned. She was already breaching his privacy - now she knew that there would have to be a limit. Refolding the paper, she put it back into her bag and slung it over her shoulder.

Gabriella was slightly surprised that she was a little unnerved by the constant quietude of the building. She was tierd of the silence now. It was like it was following her. So, she slowly picked herself up off the ground and walked noislessly down the stairs, bag in hand, searching the cupboards. She wasn't entirley sure what exactly she was searching for, but she felt the need to be doing something with herself. She realised suddeny why the silence was putting her on edge. It was like the quiet before the storm...

_Quit acting so paranoid_, she chided herself. With a deep, calming breath, she shook off the warning tingles resting on her spine and turned to leave-

Then someone turned the lights off.

Gabriella tried her best to scream against the black material of the plastic bag that had been tugged over her head. Terror ran through her veins as she desperatly kicked out and tried helplessly to reach forward and prize the bag off herself with restrained hands. It was useless. Of course it was. She knew it was. But she couldn't stop yelling out, fear taking over all of her thoughts.

The plastic tightened around her neck, cutting her breathing even more and she could hear her wheezed breaths resounding inside her chosen instrument of death. Despite her crazed situation, Gabriella could still make out some of the things her attackers hissed to each other.

"Dude, not so tight! We're not s'posed to kill her!"

"Fucking bitch. Should've gagged her first..."

"Shut up, Omar. I don't wanna even be here anyway. I'm not exactly crazy about kidnapping someone I've known since pre-school, let alone talk about muzzling her."

"You want Baylor to hear you been sayin that shit? No? Then shut up."

There was just no way out.

Driven by instinct, Gabriella kept her feet buried down to the ground, fiercely resisting as she felt the three boys force her to walk outside the crumbled front door. But the two of them combined were far stronger and she was quickly forced to walk while earning a hard slap on the back of her covered head every time she yelled too loud for their liking. Which was often. Some sensible part of her brain was starting to piece together the situation, telling her to try and fight with all of her strength, but it was impossible.

The lack of oxygen and the brute force of the guys were just too much for her to handle and she was getting weaker by the second the more they were pushing her and holding her too tightly. Anything could happen to her now. Anything. That realization and her normal survival combative side gave her a last surge of energy, making the sensible part of her brain will her body to obey. With a loud cry under the effort, she managed to push a little at the guy on her right side, freeing her hand, trying to remove th plastic bag or at least, rip a hole to be able to breath better and not pass out, as she carried on frantically wriggling her body all over the place to be freed.

"Would you fucking stop trying to fight us?" a voice commanded her but she froze, her breath cut short again.

In the distance, Gabriella could swear she heard voices. _Oh God_, she thought, _there's no way I can handle any more of them or I'll pass out right here_.

But she was surprised when after a couple more seconds she was quickly released from the bindings of arms and she yelped as she found herself tumbling to the ground, someone else's weight pushing her down. Even before she had managed to get over the shock of hitting the hard ground. She was tumbling down what felt like a ditch into the wall of the blown through bathroom, all the time still trying to drag off the plastic strangling her, effectivly scraping her elbows more than need be. All the while the weight that had pushed her down was falling with her, half landing on top of her as they came to a stop.

Gabriella snapped open her eyes which she just realised had been tight shut the entire time. This was her chance to escape. But what she saw when she opened up her lids was something that made escaping one of the last things on her mind.

Bluer than the bluest blue.

Troy.

God, it was_ Troy_.

She blinked hard as she stared into his cerulean orbs. It took Gabriella a few moments to believe that it was all real. The fingertips resting lightly on her cheek were real. The face above her was real. Troy was lying half on top of her, in almost as much shock as she was.

Neither of them knew how much time had passed with them just lying there, just the feeling that the other was really there, really true, really alive. Gabriella just feeling the complete safety of him, his weight against hers, the roughness of his fingers touching her face, his warmth and his smell and the dustyness of his clothes and neither of them were speaking. And _shit, it's Troy!_

And everything was okay. A small smile slowly crept onto her lips as she began to feel secure again. Troy, _her_ Troy was here with her. And then the sounds of the fight came back into their hearing range and at the same time, as if their moves were coordinated, they sprang to their feet.

"We got this, Troy," Ronnie called over as he grinned whilst Bobby shook her head disgustedly as they stood above Gabriella's potential captures who were practically grovelling at their feet for mercy. Keith just stared at them, shocked.

But Troy and Gabriella quickly forgot about everyone and everything else around them and their heads snapped aroud to gaze at each other again as if making sure that the sight wasn't a mirage. "It's you," Gabriella whispered.

It was all Troy needed to scoop her into his arms, feeling her hands grip him like she would never let go, in a tight embrace. After about a minute, Gabriella leaned back and looked into his eyes, both of her hands resting against his neck as she felt his around her waist. Slowly, tears began to well in her eyes as she looked over his features, re-memorising them in all their perfection.

And then she took one step back and slapped him hard across the face.

* * *

**AN: You liiiiike?**

**I'm not gonna lie, I do. :) **

**So considering all the effort and stuff, PLEASE REVIEW! This is probably the longest chapter so far and I'm actually damn proud of it. :D**

**Love, love, love,**

**whirlergirl .x.**


	7. Part 24: Hello, whiteTRASH

**AN: I know, I know, I'm sucha _dick _for not updating in so long. Longer, in fact, then I can bring myself to remember. For some reason this was kind of a hard chapter for me, not to mention I haven't been having the smoothest of rides on the rollercoaster of life recently. And this chapter isn't very happy or juicy, but it contains some much needed details for the story to progress and the thing is I just sort of got to the point where I thought, If I don't update now, then I never will. So I did. If anything, it's like a little Christmas present to myself - and maybe some you guys, too, I hope.**

**I would just like to take a second to thank Angkeats for helping me out a little with this chapter, it means a lot. And I'll also give a little shout out to cuzimbored, just because let's face it, you rock and I hope you get to read this chapter when you get the chance. :)**

**Please enjoy guys. Hope I haven't lost too many of you. Especially with the name change and all that.**

**I'll give you the ending to the last chapter, seeing as it was so damn long ago:**

_Slowly, tears began to well in her eyes as she looked over his features, re-memorising them in all their perfection. _

_And then she took one step back and slapped him hard across the face._

**

* * *

****Hello, whiteTRASH.**

Whether she wanted to feel it or not, the second she saw his face, something happened. It was as if all of the colors that she didn't notice were missing in the first place suddenly all conspired together with added vibrancy. For those few moments, those colors completely overwhelmed the gray.

But, goddammit, he had left her. Part of her wanted to hate him, to hit him again to try and make him feel a segment of the pain that he had caused her to feel. But what are you supposed to do when you find yourself in such a situation? What do you do when that boy is practically all you've got left?

_I'll tell you: You wait and see what he says. You wait for his pathetic excuse and then after deliberating on a scale of one to ten exactly how pathetic it is you decide whether or not you're gonna hit him again... _

_Huh_, Gabriella thought, _Good plan._

"What the hell was that for?" Troy asked, shocked.

"You know what it was for," she informed him darkly.

Troy frowned in confusion. Where did she go? Where did the small, quiet and innocent Gabriella go? Why was she suddenly acting so out of character? This new character who so quickly managed to hate him with a passion… when just seconds ago she was looking at him like there was no other place that she would rather be. _Holding_ him like there was no other place she would rather be. And suddenly now she was this fierce woman, flames in her eyes and… And... _Oh god_, Troy finished his thoughts, _and tears running down her face like they would never stop_.

"Gabriella," he started softly, leaning towards her, "you know that I would never do anything like that to hurt you. _Never_."

Gabriella frowned harder and shook her head from side to side, taking a step back, "Do you even know how I felt? - Wait! Of _course_ you don't! ...You know, that is so typically _male_ of you to do something like that to me! That is so-"

Troy grabbed the sides of her arms, knowing where this was going, "Look, this is nothing like-"

Gabriella shrugged him off, "'-like _what_ huh?"

Troy didn't rise to the bait that she was throwing and held her gaze steadily in silence.

"Go on, start what you finish," Gabriella almost hissed, her voice still thoroughly riddled with tears.

"Gabriella," Troy warned softly.

"Oh, you mean it's nothing like my _Dad_? Well guess what, Troy; this was _exactly_ like him, okay? All except... except you know what? You only managed to do one thing differently!" Gabriella could slowly feel the anger and hurt leaving her system as she got it all out. As if these ugly feelings that she pushed back down inside herself were slowly and finally coming to the surface, cold and black and gasping for air. But it wasn't really Troy that she was angry at the most. Really it was the past feelings from what her father did and she hated that it made her weak and afraid and she hated that it was ruining what she had with Troy Bolton.

Gabriella took another breath as she tried to finish her sentence, holding back her tears, "you looked back," she continued, softer than before, but with her new hard edge, "that's what I get, Bolton. One. Last. Look."

Troy flinched as she practically spat her last words, almost mocking him. How could she be like this to him when all he was doing was what was best for her? Why couldn't she get that into her head?

"You _know_ why things turned out like that. If we had both ran that day then there was a small chance that Drew would have caught up with us. I am not willing to take that chance," he informed her hotly, "I could lead him away from you, so I did. And it was the right decision." he concluded.

"But it wasn't just your decision to make!" Gabriella pushed, "That was supposed to be _my_ choice," her voice began to crack again under her tears, "You promised me. You _promised_ me remember? I thought we were in this together goddammit!"

Troy grasped her left arm, "We are!" he insisted.

"So why-?"

"-I was _trying_ to protect you!"

"What is this stupid thing about protecting me?" she began to yell again, "Because I'm just a little girl that needs help? Huh? Because of fucking male egos? Because-"

"Because_ I love you_, Goddammit!"

You could have heard a pin drop in the silence that followed. Troy looked away for a moment, checking that Ronnie and Bobby were still busy before turning back to her, "...I saw a chance that might help you and I took it. Okay?", now that his previous hostile tone was gone and his voice suddenly became quiet and even, it was as if the entire world had agreed with the new volume and turned it down a few notches – even on Gabriella.

Gabriella nodded begrudgingly although her insides were screaming in exultation, contrasting her face and betraying her logic. She tried to let the information go in sensibly, but it simply refused. He loved her. He really did. She had it in writing and now she had it running through her mind over and over again, on a loop and - despite the fact that he yelled it in her face - it became sweet music to her ears, the words raw with emotion, true and crude and not being able to stop themselves from bursting through his lips and she knew he meant it. She believed him.

Silently Troy stepped forwards and touched his forehead to hers.

"Anything else?" she whispered as tightly as possible, determined to show no mercy.

Slowly he began to run his fingers gently through her hair, "And I'm sorry," he whispered back, closing his eyes tightly, "I'm so, _so_ sorry."

* * *

The three of them sat in silence.

On the left Jumoke's hand was intertwined with Keri's left hand and Keri's right, was grasped tightly by Dana. No one had heard of Dana until she had come up to them both after a meeting in Drew's house before deciding to take them a couple blocks down the street into her own home and told them that she was his cousin. She was his cousin and she wanted to talk to them. And to warn them.

All three teenagers had tears in their eyes, and in Dana's case, they were also running down her face. Keri couldn't stop thinking about how similar they both were with the exception of Dana being two years younger. They both had similar families and upbringings, and they also previously had similar personalities. It scared her how easily it seemed she could have been born under the same conditions.

"He just lost it one day," Dana sobbed, gripping Keri's hand back for the first time, "I mean, I knew that Drew's dad was weird and I knew that our parents spent a lot of time together but..." she sniffed, took a breath and carried on relaying to Keri what she knew, "my Dad had collected guns before, but my Mum didn't want them in the house, so he just gave them to Uncle Rob and... and he was collecting knives and stuff too, so then I guess Auntie Maya told him the same thing, you know, that she didn't want that stuff in the house no more now that Drew and me were growing up and we understood things. And... Jesus... I didn't realize at first, but he got mad at her, he did. And he hit her and he made Drew think it was normal and – his own mothe!r - I said that it wasn't and he just said I didn't know shit cuz I was younger but..." she took another deep breath, "and his Daddy would hurt animals, too. Believe me, Keri, he did. Stray things, birds, whatever. I'll never forget...

"Uncle Rob, Drew's... Drew's father," she sniffled, recomposing herself before lowering her voice until it was quiet and scared, "he would... I mean, he'd make us... I was just a kid, but I remember. We'd just watch these scary movies Uncle Rob would put on. And I hated them and ran off or... or I'd hide until they were over and I'd cover my ears and I don't know why, but I still think about it sometimes. It was war and blood and guns and gangsters and girls and how was I supposed to react? And I know they're just movies now and they don't mean nothin, but I can't forget, I can't forget... I was too young, too young..." she paused for a moment,

"And Drew would just sit and watch... Because that's all he did: he did what his Daddy told him to and his Daddy told him to watch them movies and they were wrong and not for kids, never for kids... we were only kids..." she shook her head as if to shake away the memories, "and I just... I had to tell someone," she nodded firmly to herself through her tears as if still convincing herself that she was right in doing so, "I knew my Mum would understand and she did and... that's why we have to go someplace else. Living with my grandpops has got to be better than this shit."

Keri had her mouth slightly hung open whilst Jumoke started blankly ahead, his hand still unconsciously holding Keri's. "Are- Are you saying that Drew does that stuff too, I mean," she swallowed, "what you said about hurtin animals-"

"No, no," Dana insisted, her tears beginning to dry against her skin, "but when I see him all I think over and over again is that he's slipping. It's like he losin it just like his Daddy... and I can't deal with that... I'm just glad that Uncle Rob left for good when he did, otherwise, I don't even know if I'd be brave enough to get the hell out of here anymore," she looked into Keri's eyes and gave a sad smile, "I know I don't know you too well, Keri, but someone's just gotta know somethin before I leave and... you seem like a nice person, I guess. You know we're not too different? I don't want you to end up in a bad place. I don't want you to end up like Auntie Maya or, or these kids Andrew brags about… Pawns he calls em, like in chess, can you believe it? And he thinks he can make them move wherever he wants em to. His own army of gangstas and girls all in a war… just like those movies..."

Keri just nodded in silence, terrified of what might be to come. She knew it was too late for her and Jumoke now. If they'd left right then, then there was no doubt that they would be next on the list after whiteBoy... well not just whiteBoy any more, no, there was a small group of them now apparently, all sticking together, so scared of being found that they'd resorted to living on the streets.

Baylor had said it was pathetic, poor and cowardly. 'Pussies' he had spat, before mumbling the new name, 'whiteTRASH, that's what they are. Fucking whiteTRASH.'

And with this new information from Dana – a young woman brave enough to tell her story because she thought it might help a person that she had never even met - Keri was more petrified than ever. She had unknowingly let herself become another of Andrew Baylor's pawns.

* * *

"There's just one thing that I want to know right now," Gabriella informed Troy as they stood facing the rest of the small group, "why the hell is _he_ with you?" she asked, staring hard at Keith before facing the pale boy again.

"It's a long story," he began, half relieved that she was thinking about other things apart from the way he had deceived her, but once Troy saw the look that Gabriella was giving him, he knew that he was going to have to elaborate a little more than that, "honestly, I don't think that he's as bad as I thought... now that I think about it. I mean, he's not teaming up with Baylor right?"

"How are you supposed to know that?" she retorted stiffly in a low voice, "how would you know whether or not he's texting Andrew right now just letting him know exactly where we are?"

A part of Troy brightened slightly as he heard her say 'where _we_ are'.

But it slipped without him realizing what he was saying as he blurted out, "Don't you trust me?"

Of course, upon hearing the words through his own ears his first and only immediate thought recurring round and round his head seemed to be _'Oh, shittt!_' He just really hoped that it didn't just sound like he was mocking her or something - Because the minimum it sounded like was some kind of attempted jest in bad taste.

Gabriella grated her teeth together in irritation. She knew that inside he would be cringing at his comment but it wasn't quite enough to stop it from aggravating her.

"I don't trust _him_, "she insisted, focusing her attention on Keith and not their confusing relationship status. They could discuss that later.

Troy tried to recover from him previous falter whilst he filled her in, "Well if you look at it from another angle," he attempted to reason, "as long as he's with us, he's never gonna be out of our sight and start causing us trouble... and just a few minutes back Bobby stole the cell phone that he was carrying so right this second, we don't have too much of a reason to worry about him."

Gabriella nodded as they carried on walking to who knows where - just another place to squat and plan for a night, the cogs in her mind began to turn and refocus as to how Troy's world now worked, "who's Bobby?" she asked, "the brunette?"

"Yeah," he replied, his eye's flicking over to the other girls direction for a second before focusing again on Gabriella, flat out ignoring the questioning looks that Ronnie and Bobby were occasionally trying to send him.

"Know where we're going?" she asked after a moment of silence.

"Not exactly," he replied, continuing when he saw Gabriella's incredulously raised eyebrows, "but _he_ knows" he finished, nodding ahead of them at Ronnie who was leading the group forward.

"Ronnie?" she asked.

"Ronnie," he nodded.

Gabriella kept her eyes focused ahead, not daring to look at the boy walking by her side, no matter how much she wanted to. God, it wasn't her fault. It wasn't. It _wasn't_. But she could still feel the sharp pang of hurt whenever she thought about what had happened. It was just such a cruel joke. She had given everything she had for the first time to a guy that she really, truly cared about. A guy that she really, truly loved. And more importantly, a guy that she trusted. And what had he done? He had repeated her worst nightmare for the second time, right in front of her eyes.

_Of course there was a difference this time_, she would try and convince herself_. He didn't leave because he didn't love me, quite the opposite; he left because he loved me so _much_ that he was too afraid to risk me being hurt. He was only thinking of what could have been best for _me_, most beneficial for _me_. And, not to mention that he was putting his own life at risk to do so and just about saved me from boys under a heavy influence for the _second_ time. And he cares about me, and he said that he loved me and he's so good and so kind and so forgiving..._

But it doesn't always make it hurt less, does it?

Their reunion wasn't what she had expected. Really. And she was sure it wasn't what Troy had expected either. Because instead of kissing him, she had hit him. And instead of proclaiming words of love, they had argued over how they had come to be apart. And now they were walking away to god knows where, and she was acting as if nothing was wrong and asking about her new accomplices, doubting them already, too.

As they walked forward down the dusty street together, her tiny hand itched to slip itself into Troy's large, strong one - but her pride wouldn't allow it. Not yet. Not until she could be rid of the nasty feelings crawling beneath her skin.

_Troy had better start explaining everything if he wants some full cooperation_, Gabriella thought -It was time to resurrect some bridges.

Soon, both Gabriella and Troy became aware that the others had stopped walking ahead of them. Despite themselves, they both turned to look at each other with curious expressions before quickly registering their small faux pas and turning away to begin running ahead to find out what was wrong.

The first thing they heard was Keith.

"Hey! Is that my cell phone?"

Bobby rolled her eyes as she looked at the device Ronnie held in front of them all, "Yeah, shut up," she snapped.

Before Keith could speak again, Ronnie interrupted, "Did'ya get a text?"

"Who from?" Troy persisted.

"_You stole my cell phone_?"

"Quiet!" Ronnie scolded, "It's from Baylor."

"You sure?" Troy asked, desperately wishing that he wasn't.

"He's called 'Drew' right?" Ronnie checked with him and Troy silently nodded, feeling that same feeling grip the inside of his chest and tie his insides up into a knot of furious nerves. He held his breath as he waited for the message to be opened and the secret revealed.

"Well?" Bobby snapped.

"Well, what?" Ronnie shrugged, turning his gaze away from the tiny screen to look at her.

"Aren't cha gonna read it?"

"I don't wanna read it."

"It's _my_ cell phone," Keith butted in, making a grab for it, only for the tiny thing to be swiftly whisked away from his hand by Ronnie.

"I think Troy should read it first." Ronnie protested.

"Why?" Bobby shook her head in confusion.

"Because."

"Ronnie, just read it!" she rolled her eyes in frustration.

"No!"

"Fine!" Bobby yelled, throwing her hands in the air, "_I_ will read it."

There was a short silence as the group of them huddled in a semi-circle around the cell phone in Bobby's grasp as she slowly, slowly, pressed the center button, ordering the message to reveal itself. It seemed that everyone had held their breath as they read the two words that lit up on the screen.

Bobby squinted her eyes and then took in a breath so that she could speak first, still none of them taking their eyes away from the screen.

"Is that it?" she asked quietly.

"What does it mean?" Ronnie asked quietly also, feeling the tension of the situation.

"What do you_ think_ it means?" Bobby retorted as she shook her head slightly at the words in front of her, still confused about their message.

"It fuckin means something," Troy muttered, but still loud enough that everyone could hear.

"And that is...?"

Gabriella slowly leaned forward, brushing against Troy and Ronnie's arms as she did so and closed her hand around the cell phone, causing Bobby to instinctively let go of the device. Holding it as still as possible, they all stared, bewitched by the message still illuminated on the screen.

"You know Andrew Baylor", she addressed them all for the first time, "he loves his labels."

It was as if her words had set off the cogs in the other teenagers minds working. To them all now, the simple text made sense. It wasn't necessarily a direct threat – Not yet, anyway – but more like Drew had made an observation.

Drew was simply telling them what the group of them all were to him now. What they had collectively become.

The message Andrew Baylor had sent merely greeted them with their new name. It read:

**From: Drew**

**Hello, whiteTRASH.**

**

* * *

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**AN: Whey! An update! And I promise that the next one will be much sooner than the length of time it took to get this one out. Thank you all so much for reading :)**

**- I hope that you guys haven't been to confused about the name change. I don't really like it if I'm being honest because, let's face it, I'm always going to be whirlergirl really ;) Maybe I'll change it back one day, I hope. Lol, this will make no sense to you, of course, but it's no biggie - I just ask that you'll maybe still think of me as whirlergirl lol. Oh, and I hope that you all have a very happy holiday! Seriously, have a great Charistmas and Take a Break, okay. God knows we all bloody need one. ;D**

**Love, love, love,**

**whirlergirl (FlakeGirl) .x.**


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